Global Courant 2023-04-16 21:15:32
Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas arrives for Judge Neil Gorsuch’s swearing-in ceremony as Associate Supreme Court Justice at the White House Rose Garden in Washington, April 10, 2017.
Joshua Roberts | Reuters
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reported on financial disclosure forms that his family earned thousands of dollars in rental income from a Nebraska real estate business that has been closed since 2006, according to a report from the U.S. Washington Post Sunday.
Thomas has reported earnings from a company called Ginger, Ltd., Partnership, for the past two decades, but in 2006 it was closed and replaced by a new company, the report said. The new company, Ginger Holdings, LLC, has the same name, but nothing about it is mentioned in Thomas’s records.
In recent years, Thomas reportedly continued to disclose between $50,000 and $100,000 annually in earnings from the old company.
Even if the misrepresentation can be traced back to a paperwork error, it marks the final question surrounding the financial practices of the Justice Department after a recent ProPublica report revealed that Thomas has accepted secret luxury travel from Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow for more than two decades, apparently in violation of a financial disclosure law.
Thomas, the 74-year-old conservative attorney who has served on the nation’s highest court since 1991, has not reported the travels on his financial disclosures as required by law, the nonprofit editorial reported. ProPublica later reported that Crow bought real estate also from Thomas, which the judiciary has not made public either.
The inquiry provides further fuel for Thomas’s critics, who say his refusal to withdraw from matters related to issues related to his wife’s political work in conservative circles – including her involvement in plans to overthrow the election of 2020 – creates a conflict of interest.
The Democratic majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday called for an investigation into Thomas’ conduct. Chief Justice John Roberts should “immediately” open an investigation into “how such conduct could have occurred” under his supervision, read a letter from Illinois Chairman Dick Durbin and the 10 other Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Panel.
The commission announced in the letter that it will hold a hearing “in the coming days” on “the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court’s ethical standards.”
— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.
